Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Writer's Wednesday: Off Kilter

Warning:
Don’t read this while eating lunch.

What is
your centre of gravity? I’ll admit this question never popped into my mind
until I tried to take the kids to see the Mademoiselle Prive’ exhibit and
failed. We didn’t leave on time, accidentally left behind the required food for
the tube ride and the queue was 150 people deep.

Yet, with
aplomb, we grabbed sandwiches and went to the Science Museum, where there’s 3000
children and we’ve been 1000 times. But I’m flexible; I’m rolling with the day’s
punches. There’s no culture or civilized lunch, but it’s still fun, and even
better, I have a seat next to the massive pulley pebble system. In fact, I’m feeling quite smug having saved this
day.

Then…and
then. A little boy next to my daughter got a big mouthful of pebbles. I don’t
know what he was doing looking up with his mouth open, but it was a shock to
him and to me. After all, I had a ring side seat to what happened next. That
the child produced the amount of saliva and slime only a hagfish could be proud
of. Then, without reservation, he hurled said salvia and trapped pebbles back
into the pulley system’s trough.More, oh,
there’s more. As thick strings of salvia continue to trail from his mouth to
the intricately tubed system (that no amount of cleaning will help now), the 50
children witnessing this marvel: Just Keep Playing. With their bare hands, they
scoop the ever-growing pebbled smear into a bucket that will release it throughout
the system, and to the other children.

Now, I’m
not squeamish. I can take blood, eyeball poking and cleaning other children’s
vomit from carpet. But something about this mucus-y event is just the straw to
my camel. I’m no longer rolling with the punches. In fact, I’m reeling.

I loved
this definition that our body’s centre of gravity is somewhere above our waist.
Which begs this question: Is that centre the gut or the heart? Can a person’s
centre of gravity be knocked over by something that happens emotionally or
physically?

To get to
the HEA in writing, you have to know your characters centre of gravity. What it
is, what will knock them off and how to get it back. If their centre is family,
the punch to their axis could be something emotional like abandonment. If their
centre is looks/strength, it could be physical, like a lost limb. When you
write romances, trust and love will return the centre to your characters.

But what
if it’s a villain, and you want him permanently off kilter? My current series
has a villain, but I can’t find his centre of gravity to knock him off of.
First, he eats daggers for breakfast, so he won’t be affected by a physical
punch, but can I give him an emotional one?

It’s
difficult. He’s been betrayed by the only person he trusted. Yet, instead of
kneeling in the dirt to die, he intends to betray and kill her. Oh, and did I
mention she’s his daughter? Yeah, I think this guy chews emotional daggers as
well.

So what’s this guy’s centre and what will knock him off it? I don’t know, and I’ve been plotting the series for months. But I have a sneaking suspicion it’ll be like that wad of spit, sudden and unexpected. Something simple, messy and unclean-upable.

In the meantime, I have to anchor myself to the keyboard, be like the kids, who have seen all the sliminess of life before and just keep playing.